Medical implants today often have at least one data communication interface for wireless data exchange with at least one external device, e.g., a programming device, or a so-called patient device which serves as a relay station for data exchange with a central service center.
Programming and scanning of such an implant with the help of a programming device are well known. For example, medical implants such as heart pacemakers and/or cardioverters/defibrillators are often capable of recording physiological data, e.g., intracardiac electrocardiograms or the like, during operation and transferring these data to the programming device in the event of a scan by the programming device. Conversely, it may be possible to reprogram the control of the medical implant with the help of the programming device. This is usually done when a patient wearing the medical implant visits the attending physician. The short range of the wireless data transfer between the medical implant and the external programming device presupposes a close proximity between the implant and the programming device, which results in the patient and physician also confronting one another in such a follow-up examination by a physician. Wireless data exchange between the medical implant and the programming device takes place via a first data communication channel of the medical implant assigned to the programming device.
In addition to this direct data exchange between the medical implant and the programming device, many medical implants today are capable of wireless data exchange over a second data communication channel with an external device in the form of a patient device, which is in turn connected to a central service center. The data communication link between the patient device and the central service center may be hardwired and may also take place via the Internet, for example. Data obtained from the medical implant, e.g., physiological data or operating data, may also be exchanged with the central service center via the second data communication channel. Conversely, programming commands or control commands may also be transmitted from the central service center to the medical implant via the second data communication channel.
A separate interface is usually provided for the first data communication channel and the second data communication channel, so that such a medical implant has two data communication interfaces. However, it is also possible to provide the same interface for data communication over the first data communication channel and the second data communication channel.